Automatic machine for alimentary paste and other pasty materials



March 4, 1958 A. BENEDETTELLI AUTOMATIC MACHINE FOR' ALIMENTARY PASTEAND OTHER PASTY MATERIALS Filed Nov. 1, 1954 Unite. States PatfiiiAUTOMATIC MACHINE FOR ALIMENTARY PASTE AND OTHER PASTY MATERIALS AmerigoBenedettelli, Bari, Italy Claims priority, application Italy April 24,1954 Claims. (Cl. 107-14) In automatic machines for alimentary pasteandother pasty materials, in which air is extracted from the dough or mixprior to drawing same to final shape, it has been found useful todistribute the dough or mix so deaerated to aplurality of extruders.

In the machine according to the present invention this is obtained bypassing the dough or mix, prior to final shaping, through avacuum-operated vat for distributing the product. The product is takenfrom the mixing vat by a helical feed screw and is compressed through anextruder where, after being cut into small tablets, it reaches thevacuum-vat from which it is then distributed and compressed against aplurality of extruders for final shaping, by an equal number of helicalcompression screws. .j

In particular the invention concerns an automatic machine for alimentarypaste and other pasty materials comprising a mixing vat, a'vacuum-vatand a helical screw for conveying the dough or mix from said mixing vatto said vacuum-vat, characterized in that the vacuum vat is providedwith a plurality of helical compression screws adapted tocompress thedough or mix against an equal number of .extruders for finalshaping. Inorder to make the invention more fully understood, one preferredembodiment thereof is illustrated diagrammatically merely by Way ofexample in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a cross-section of the machine along line AA of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of said machine along line B-B of Fig. l;and

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal line CC of said Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawing, 1 designates the frame of the machine, 2the device for measuring water and meal or flour with other ingredientsand 3, 4 and 5 the three compartments of the mixing vat, inside whichthere are provided respectively the mixing shafts 6, 7, 8 and 9 providedwith vanes or stakes and actuated by an electric motor not shown in thedrawing.

section of said machine along Laterally in respect to said mixing vatthere is provided the distributing vat 10 in which vacuum is produced bymeans of a suction pump not shown in the drawing. Inside saiddistributing vat there are provided the mixing shafts 11, 12, 13 and 14provided with vanes or stakes and actuated by the electric motor 15 byway of the gear train 16.

Said distributing vat 10 is in communication with the mixing vat bymeans of the cylinder 17 inside which there is accommodated rotatablythe helical feed screw 18. In the inet 19 for the dough or mix in thedistributing vat 10 there is provided the extruder 20 consisting of adie having a plurality of extrusion orifices. Knives 21, which are rigidwith the mixing shafts 12 and 13 (see Figures 2 and 3), are provided tocut off the dough or mix extruded from extruder 20.

Along the longitudinal sides of the distributing vat .10, in positionsperpendicular to the bottom thereof,

there are provided a plurality of helical compression screws 22 adaptedto distribute and compress the dough or mix against an equal number ofextruders 23 provided below for final shaping. Each of these extruders23 has a suitable extrusion orifice.

As shown in the drawing, the vaned shafts 11, 12, 13 and 14 are mountedin the distributing vat 10 in parallelism. The axes of the compressionscrews 22 are also mounted in parallelism with each other, and aremounted at right angles to the axes of the shafts 11, 12, 13, and 14.The enveloping cylinders of the compression screws 22, if extended,overlap the shafts 11 and 14, atopposite sides of the distributing vat,respectively. This insures that the dough is fed to the upper ends ofthe several compression screws 22 at a constant and substantiallyuniform rate.

Said helical compression screws 22 have their upper ends extending abovethe distributing vat inside the headings 24 and 25 wherein there aresupported the worm screws 26 and 27. These screws rotate in engagementwith the helical wheels 28 fitted onto the aforesaid ends of the helicalcompression screws 22.

Said worm screws 26 and 27 are actuated by the reducer motor units 29.

Operation of the machine is as follows: The measuring device 2 may be ofconventional construction and is not described or illustrated in detailhere. It may be, for instance, an open topped container pivotedoffcenter to tilt when a predetermined weight of water and meal, orflour and other ingredients is in it, to dump its contents into themixing compartments.

The water and the mealy or floury ingredients meas-- At this time thedough or mix is taken up by said helical feed screw 18 and compressedthrough the extruder 20 into the distributing vacuum-vat 10 whereinto itenters in the shape of small tablets by effect of the rotary knives 21.

In the vacuum-vat 10 said tablets are agitated by the vanes 0r stakes ofthe mixing shafts 11, 12, 13, 14 in such a manner as to form a dough ormix practically free from air; said dough or mix is then taken andcompressed against the conventional extruders 23 by the helicalcompression screws 22 for definite shaping.

The embodiment above described illustrates the novel principle of thepresent invention but it is obvious that many modifications and variantsmay be made in the details of the embodiment without departing from thescope of the present invention.

It is apparent that the machine may serve not only to make alimentarypaste but also any other materials such as e. g. clay or plastics, whichhave to be compressed by a screw.

With the machine provided by the present invention there are eliminatedall of the energy losses which occur if the distribution of the paste,in the case of long paste, is effected by means of a special head withan individual compression chamber.

The compression and drawing or extruding at the two sides of the feeddistributing vat by means of numerous small screws acting simultaneouslyon every side and actuated by means of a worm screw connected to areducer motor unit which permits ample deviations from the number ofrevolutions of said screw, gives the possibility of working the productaccurately in accordance with the kind of shapes to be worked.

With such an arrangement of the feed screws, the extruders may beinserted in vat 10 in such a manner that the interchange of saidextruders may be made individu- 0 ally. In this way, whether the machinebe working long paste or be working short paste, the machine can go onproducing with halved output until the extruders are inserted one byone.

Owing to its peculiar structure the machine permits, moreover, toproduce contemporaneously half of its output in the shape of long pasteandhalf short paste; the long paste is then to be laid out over specialrods and the short paste is to be delivered already packaged by aspecial band packing device installed under the frame of the machine.

Having obtained a more uniform pressure over the length of drawing orextruding and a maximum time therefor, one obtains with a machineconstructed according to the present invention a considerable reductionin the amount of tails as compared with conventional machines; that isto say, production losses are cut down.

I claim:

1. In an automatic machine for preparing alimentary paste and ing meansmounted to feed dough into said vat, a plurality of dough-propelling andmixing shafts in said vat, said shafts having radially-extending vanesmounted thereon, said vanes being axially spaced along said shafts,

a plurality of cylindrical dough compression chambers each opening atone end into said vat, an extruding die mounted in the other end of eachof said compression chambers, a dough-propelling screw rotatably mountedin each of said compression chambers to feed dough from said vat throughthe extruding die that is mounted in said compression chamber, theenveloping cylinder of each of said screws, if extended, intersectingand overlapping the enveloping cylinder of at shafts, and means fordriving said screws and said shafts.

2. An automatic machine for preparing alimentary paste and other doughymaterials according to claim 1, in which each dough-propelling screw issecured to a shaft that extends through said vat.

3. In an automatic machine for preparing alimentary paste and otherdoughy materials, a distributing vat, 40

feeding means for feeding dough into said vat, a knife other doughymaterials, a distributing vat, feeda least one of said varied rotatablymounted in said vat and positioned to cut 0 dough fed therein, said vatto extend longitudinally thereof, each of said shafts having vanes forfeeding the dough through said vat, a plurality of dough compressionchambers each opening at one end into said vat, a final-shapingextruding die mounted in the other end of each of said dough compressionchambers, a dough-propelling screw rotatably mounted in each of saidcompression chambers to feed dough from said vat through the last-namedextrusion dies, the enveloping cylinderof each of said screws, itextended, intersecting and overlapping the en veloping cylinder of atleast one of said vaned shafts, and means for driving said screws andsaid shafts.

4. An automatic machine for preparing alimentary paste and other doughymaterials according to claim 3, in which said shafts are parallel to oneanother and in which the axis of each said dough-propelling screwextends at a right angle to the axes of said shafts.

5. An automatic machine for preparing alimentary paste and other doughymaterials according to claim 3 in which said vat is under vacuum and inwhich said compression chambers are arranged along the longitudinalsides of said vat and extend downwardly therefrom and have their upperends communicating with the vat, said final-shaping extrusion dies beingmounted in the lower ends of the compression chambers, said shafts beingmounted in parallelism, said dough-propelling screws also being mountedin parallelism, and the axes of said doughpropelling screws extending ata right angle to the axes of said shafts.

References Cited in the file ofthis patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 541,642Traiser June 25, 1895 2,026,667 Braibanti et a1. Jan. 7, 1936 FOREIGNPATENTS 412,248 Great Britain June 25, 1934 568,094 Great Britain Mar.19, 1945 a plurality of shafts 'journaled in

